


Monsters

by vacant houses (the_lost_robot)



Series: That Moment [3]
Category: Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Chronicles of Riddick Series, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Compliant, Drabble, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 04:11:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1027076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_lost_robot/pseuds/vacant%20houses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riddick isn't a hero. But children keep asking him to protect them from the monsters all the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine.

** Monsters **

 

"Are you going to stop the new monsters now?" Ziza asks and he stops.

Cute kid. Smart one too. The young ones normally are, survival instincts still strong and haven't been dulled by age and civility. They can tell, they recognize that he's the big bad and that if he's between them and the monsters, then maybe they've got a fighting chance. He won't try to save anyone but he will kill anything that comes his way. So sticking him in the middle really is the smartest move that anyone can make.

It says something about his life that he recognizes that everything's about to go to shit because a little girl's asking for his help. Children, always had something of a weak spot for them. He doesn't particularly like them but they're small and defenseless through no fault of their own. Adults, though, they can sink or swim by themselves.

He is nowhere near a hero, not by a long shot. It truly is a sign of desperation of Imam and his people that they've gone through the lengths to bring him here. Because he doesn't care, one way or another, every one dies. All they're doing is ensuring a few of their enemies will be going down along with them.

They're all staring, Ziza inclusive, waiting for an answer. He pulls his hood up and covers his head before treading away. Ziza won't be the only child he's walked away from, Jack isn't even first. There's a long trail of disappointed children he's left behind, ghosts of his past. And yet somehow...Imam's blunt stab manages to strike him in a way the other's hadn't.

And he's got a lot of memories of low points.

"Take me with you. Please!" The escape pod's launch can't be stopped and Lynn Silverman bangs on the door, begging for something he's unable to give. Girl's father has been turned into a killing machine and her mother murdered right before her eyes only minutes before and Riddick closes the pod just before she gets there and she can't escape. Trapped on the Dark Athena with Revas who is pissed off and certainly not dead even though Riddick's stabbed her own hairpin through her fucking throat.

Then, later.

"I knew you'd come back for me." Lynn's wrong but she doesn't know it. Girl's six years old and a genius but the only reason he boards the Athena again is because it's the only way off Aguerra. "The monsters are looking for me."

Story of his life.

Damn children and all the fucking monsters in the universe.

"When I say goodbye, it's forever."

Words he once said to Lynn, a promise he'd lived his whole life by.

A promise he thinks he is on the brink of breaking.

There's a planet out there that's calling.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: All the dialogue here is from Chronicles of Riddick and Assault on Dark Athena. Just me, musing about all the children Riddick seems to pick up along the way. (And no, Lynn isn't mine either, she's from Assault on Dark Athena and I was mildly horrified when she gets left behind)


End file.
